Reading Summit

My friends (and family) over at Reading in Motion held a "Reading Summit" in Chicago. Reading in Motion (RIM) is a non-profit here in Chicago that works with schools who are trying to improve early literacy. Nothing special in that; lots of groups are trying to work with schools to help kids read better. But RIM is unique in that it is a collective of performing artists, and they bring an artist's sensibility to the job of teaching reading.

http://www.readinginmotion.org/

The founding director, Karl Androes, is a musician, Elizabeth Johnston, the curriculum director, is a dancer (and a visual artist, a BFA, of course), and the various teachers are actors and the like. Their oral reading fluency lessons have students working on scripts, while their phonological awareness exercises are all infused with music. And, surprising to me, given their artistic emphasis, they pay a great deal of attention to data. Each year they test the heck out of their program as they redesign it (again, an artist's sense).

Their summit in Chicago had some pretty heavy hitters in literacy like Susan Neuman from the University of Michigan, Laura Westberg from the National Center for Family Literacy, and Lynn Fielding from the Kennewick School District in Washington. I hadn't met Lynn before, but I am a big fan of his book Annual Growth, Catch Up Growth, which shows how much extra learning time it takes to catch up a student who is reading behind level. I am adding that book to my recommended list on the site. It is well worth reading.

Oh, and here is my presentation from the summit.

http://sites.google.com/site/shanahanstuff/home/reading-summit